Beauties and high fashion
Last time, it was couturier Oscar de la Renta who came here himself, in person, for a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Ekali Club. This time, it was his models who returned to the Ekali Club to parade creations by de la Renta, Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, Elie Saab, Mila Schoen and Anatol jewelry by Roula Tsoukala, represented in Greece by Haris Tsimoyianni. The few men who accompanied the women in the audience had only one question: Who’s looking at the clothes? Greece’s rejection of the Italian ultimatum of October 28, 1940, which plunged the country into World War II on the side of the Allies, is also celebrated as the epic triumph of the common man and not the officers who led him into battle. The view today is that the military dictator who had seized power in 1936, General Ioannis Metaxas, had been deeply ambivalent about the war and was trying to keep Greece neutral. Although a patriot, he seemed to lean toward the Fascist ideology and had set up a Christian-Fascist youth movement, persecuted the Left and democrats ruthlessly and reformed and resupplied the military. But when faced with a demand to let the Italians march into Greece, after accepting a series of smaller provocations, he was nothing but a Greek and his reply was clear. Today October 28 is known simply as Ochi Day. The Greek people, who had been neither greatly opposed nor greatly in favor of Metaxas (who was, until then, just another bump in the hugely anomalous road of Greek politics), rushed to mobilize and they swept back the Italians, deep into Albania. This was achieved with the heroism of Greek troops and the locals – men and women – who helped them. And, in a magical transformation, it was the sacrifice of the people – men and women, rich and poor, Christians and Jews, sailors and infantrymen, soldiers and civilians – who cleansed the excesses of dictatorship in the eyes of history. And this perhaps planted the seed of the disaster that befell Greece and Cyprus in 1974 when another dictatorship thought that it could purify itself by making a grab for Cyprus and uniting it with Greece. The scheme failed and gave Turkey the opportunity to occupy part of Cyprus. This dictatorship, which won none of the popular legitimacy that Metaxas achieved, remains universally reviled. Yet the military, firmly controlled by civilians since 1974, is the institution most trusted by the Greeks. It is the expression of national sacrifice and determination, not the weapon of an elite who use it against the people.
